UPDATE (2/21): A representative from Legacy has confirmed that this title is currently “on hold.” Stay tuned for more information as it develops.

When the singer’s gone, let the song go on…

How lucky we are that Arthur Garfunkel is still very much with us. Jimmy Webb wrote those words for the unlikely rock star, a former architecture student endowed with a purity of tone and the ability to pierce the heart. Garfunkel, of course, was the yin to Paul Simon’s yang, the Tom to his Jerry. And so, he once again bookends his old friend with a new anthology coming from Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings. Art Garfunkel: The Singer serves as a welcome companion to the recently-released Paul Simon: Songwriter.

Set for release on April 10 from Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings, Art Garfunkel’s The Singer is the first ever 2-CD career-spanning anthology for Garfunkel. Its forty tracks have been personally selected by the artist, beginning with 1964’s Simon and Garfunkel debut Wednesday Morning, 3 AM and going right up to his most recent studio set, 2007’s Some Enchanted Evening. Twelve original studio tracks from the legendary duo have been chosen for inclusion, as well as three live tracks and two “reunion” cuts: the hit singles “My Little Town” and “What a Wonderful World,” on which Garfunkel was joined not only by Simon but by James Taylor. Like the Paul Simon collection, this isn’t a standard “greatest hits” but rather a chronicle of the artist’s personal journey in music.

The Forest Hills-born Garfunkel, who turned 70 on November 5, met his future partner Paul Simon in the halls of P.S. 164 in the sixth grade, with both young men cast in a school production of Alice in Wonderland. They soon bonded over a mutual love of music, with Garfunkel citing Nat “King” Cole as just one early influence. (Garfunkel would come full circle, recording an entire album of American standards in 2007.) Beginning in 1956, Simon and Garfunkel locally performed as “Tom and Jerry,” modeling themselves on the Everly Brothers, with whom they would later collaborate. Though he and Simon briefly split in the early 1960s, with Garfunkel pursuing his continuing education at New York’s Columbia University, they reunited for Wednesday Morning 3 AM, a low-key collection of folk songs, including a number of originals penned by the precociously talented Simon. It was lost in the shuffle of the British Invasion, however, and Simon retreated to England while Garfunkel resumed his studies. When Columbia Records decided to reissue Wednesday Morning’s “The Sound of Silence” with electric overdubs in September 1965, Simon and Garfunkel were presented with ample reason to reform: the song was climbing its way to No. 1, hitting that coveted spot on New Year’s Day, 1966. Their second album, Sounds of Silence, was recorded in December 1965 during that heady time when “Silence” was making waves in the music industry. The rest is history.

Hit the jump to explore The Singer, plus a pre-order link and full track listing with album discography!

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel called it quits following the release of 1970’s epochal Bridge Over Troubled Water, but Garfunkel (always a renaissance man) had already begun a second career as an actor, receiving a Golden Globe nomination for his work in Mike Nichols’ 1971 film Carnal Knowledge. Nichols, of course, had directed The Graduate, featuring Simon and Garfunkel’s evocative score. Garfunkel returned to Columbia Records in 1973 for his solo debut, Angel Clare. It included two songs from the pen of Jimmy Webb, who would become a close ally to Garfunkel, and one of them, “All I Know,” became Garfunkel’s first solo hit. The album peaked at No. 5, and also featured compositions by such luminaries as Randy Newman, Van Morrison, and the team of Paul Williams and Roger Nichols. Rather than the orchestrated original version of “All I Know” (featuring “Bridge Over Troubled Water”-styled piano from that recording’s Larry Knechtel), Garfunkel has opted to include the song in a later rendition recorded with Jimmy Webb from 1993’s Up ‘Til Now. Webb is also represented on the new anthology with “Scissors Cut” and “In Cars” from Scissors Cut (1981) and a duet with Amy Grant, “The Decree,” from Webb’s cantata The Animals’ Christmas (1986).

Eight of Garfunkel’s solo albums between 1973 and 1993, all recorded on the Columbia label, have been tapped for The Singer. (1997’s intimate Songs From a Parent to a Child is the only overlooked solo LP.) Every No. 1 hit from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is featured, including three Adult Contemporary No. 1s all from the 1975 album Breakaway: the title track, a revival of the standard “I Only Have Eyes For You” and the darkly-tinged Simon and Garfunkel duet “My Little Town.” Garfunkel’s gift of interpretation served him well, allowing him to tackle the works of many respected composers. On The Singer, you’ll hear songs written by Bruce Johnston (“Disney Girls,” introduced on The Beach Boys’ Surf’s Up), Carole King and Howard Greenfield (“Crying In The Rain” (with James Taylor joining Garfunkel in this Everly Brothers homage), Antonio Carlos Jobim (“Waters of March”) and Frank Loesser and Hoagy Carmichael (“Two Sleepy People”). After having contributed to the arrangements of many traditional songs both with Paul Simon and as a solo artist, Garfunkel began songwriting himself. “The Thread” and “Perfect Moment” are both co-written by Garfunkel, included from 2002’s Everything Waits to Be Noticed.

Art Garfunkel: The Singer celebrates but one central aspect of this performer, writer, actor and poet. It arrives in stores on April 10, and you can pre-order below. Listening to its forty songs, it’s clear that, at least for a couple of hours, what a wonderful world this will be.

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Peggy Lipton, Doris Day, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders.
In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and his work still appears with frequency in the magazine. In 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.
Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as The Supremes, Melissa Manchester, Laura Nyro, Bobby Darin and Johnny Mathis, legendary producer Bob Crewe, soul legend Wilson Pickett, and many others.
Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

Comments

OMG Why did they leave off the 1972 single “Second Avenue” ???? (written by Tim Moore). That track has never been remastered as far as I can tell, and only reissued on the 1990 lame hits collection “Garfunkel”

With all due respect to Art Garfunkel, who certainly deserves acclaim as a solo artist, this anthology omits too much of his great “Breakaway”, “Watermark” and “Sciissors Cut” albums — properly remastered editions of those would be much more greatly appreciated! So I will probably pass on this collection and hope it serves as a gateway for those reissues. I do think “Everything Waits to be Noticed” is one of the great, underrated albums of the past decade. Hope you’re well, Artie!

I agree. There is too much missing here, for example, “I Shall Sing” and “Feuilles-Oh/Do Space Men Pass Dead Souls on Their Way to the Moon?” This should have been a strictly Art Garfunkel anthology and left out the S&G tracks. We have those already on other collections. This is a mis-fire from Legacy.

“And I Know” from “Fate from Breakfast” (another great album deserving of a remastered reissue) also foolishly excluded. Again, if Legacy (or Sundazed) isn’t gonna reissue Art’s great early solo albums in remastered form, the least the compilers (including Art himself) should have done was focused exclusively on his highly underrated solo career. How many more times are we expected to buy S&G trax? This is not the way to go!

But I agree with everyone else here. This compilation seems to skip out on a lot of essential stuff and leans quite heavily on the Simon & Garfunkel stuff. Not really a good choice if you want to give a good representation of your career (but not come off as a leech of sorts?). :S

In the end, though, it’s up to the artist’s choice here, much like it was for Laura Nyro and the Stoned Soul Picnic compilation (considered definitive as to have the track listing reused for The Essential Laura Nyro anthology), and if this is what Art wants, then we gotta respect that.

The one thing I DO hope here is that this anthology serves as a beginning for Sony to start a remastering campaign for his albums. Watermark could use quite an upgrade.

Have to agree with what most of you have said–I hope to see loving, expanded remasters, particularly for BREAKAWAY. This set is nice, but it does smack of soaking the fans a bit. Having said that, I’ll probably buy it!

For my money, the best Garfunkel compilation is “The Art Garfunkel Album” that came out in the early days of CDs. I don’t think it was ever released in the USA. My copy came from Germany, and I believe it was released in Asia as well. 14 tracks and all of them excellent. Too bad they couldn’t just remaster this instead of retooling 16 S&G songs and calling it a Garfunkel comp. Opportunity missed.

Sadly, this is not the first time a new Garfunkel compilation was announced, only to then be put “on hold.” The last one I remember disappeared into oblivion. The Garfunkel catalog has never been treated with appropriate care. The Playlist title from last year is just o.k. Wish someone would license it or Sony would get its act together.

I too could quibble with the track selections. Certainly I love all of the titles listed but I could pick others that I’d rather see instead of some of the ones chosen.
“And I Know”
“Second Avenue”(full length please)
“If I Loved You”
“I Remember You”
“Traveling Boy”‘
“In A Little While”
“Sail On A Rainbow”
” Looking For The Right One”
“Rag Doll”
“The Dangling Conversation”
“Dream Alone”
“Sometimes When I’m Dreaming” (and other not released in the USA tracks along with any previously unreleased tracks)
“Same Old Tears On A New Background”
and many others are missed, but this a beautiful collection. I like the combination of S&G and solo tunes together on one anthology; it has never been done before. Just release it!
Set Free

Albums “Angel Clare”, “Breakaway”, “Watermark”, “Scissors Cut” and “Lefty” are being are being released in Japan in September 2012 with remastering and in Blu Spec format. Doesn’t look like any additional bonus tracks. Think I will certainly be ordering one or two of those!

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